It's diffficult to read these stories. Must be awful to live through them

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If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.“Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.” ― Richard P. Feynman'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry PratchettRemember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

We are all just words on a screen here at HAF. But we are also real people with our own demons to deal with. That we can have the confidence to describe some of our demons in this forum is a remarkable achievement for us as a group. Sure enough we are behaving as if we are a caring family which is rare and precious in a public forum. In fact I believe that we actually are a caring bunch with not even a hint of guile.

We're just words on a screen.We're gifs on a screen.We're dust in the wind.

Now that song is going to be stuck in my head all day, particularly the "ooohhh ooooohhhh ooooohhhh" part.

I have no idea what you're talking about and hope it stays that way.

Oh, the temptation.

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Sandy

"I think this is the prettiest world -- as long as you don't mind a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life that doesn't have its splash of happiness?" from The Kingfisher, by Mary Oliver

It's diffficult to read these stories. Must be awful to live through them

True. So much pain the world that the rest of us can do nothing about. Is the blog a form of therapy for your niece, Tom?

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Sandy

"I think this is the prettiest world -- as long as you don't mind a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life that doesn't have its splash of happiness?" from The Kingfisher, by Mary Oliver

Thanks for all your support. It was hard to write about my experiences, but somehow it is great to get it off my chest. My niece does it by writing her blog. The feedback that she gets back is great. She also had professional help in the past, which helped her a lot to recover.

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The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.Robert A. Heinlein

Thanks for all your support. It was hard to write about my experiences, but somehow it is great to get it off my chest...

I think this what they mean when they talk about, "healing the wound."

Not sure that such wounds ever exactly heal, Mags, but telling others of one's experiences without great fear of an adverse reaction from them certainly reduces the scarring a little.

Calling for help and attention in the "wrong way" can make matters worse, as can "bottling it up". Expressing the matter with a little objectivity - not rationalising or trying to excuse it but being as factual as one can - is a part of "-talking therapy". One can pay a therapist a small fortune for them just to listen, with the occasional little nod and, "Mm--hmm."

But they are trained for the job, you are paying them to be objective. In an environment like this it"s like relling friends who do not judge, who remain the same friends. That is important and gives a dose of courage back.

Not where I thought this thread would go considering the shootings lately.

Hmm...where do I start....

Depression.

Many forms of depression.

Depression can come and go and that is still depression.

Depression that is 24/7 for the rest of your life is more understandable to me than the depression that hops up and down, but beats you down so hard that you can't see anything but the dirt you were pushed into.

Nihilism - the belief that nothing is real, often accompanied by the thought that not even you yourself are real. Often that can bring a sense of pain for one person - but if the belief that the person is not real is true to them, then neither is their suffering. And they free themselves by focusing on happiness for the only thing that bends, is not the nonexistent-spoon, it is you that bends.

I know I have mentioned I have a mental illness. I spend a lot of time with people who have the same illness on another forum.

When it comes to PTSD, there are people on the other forum that have this as well, even though it is not the focus of the forum. I have asked them if they see flashes of the events in their flashbacks. Like pictures, or a movie. They have all said yes, and the motivation I have for asking that question is because it was mentioned in a video about PTSD and I identified with that.

There is a lot of mention of self harm in the other forum. There was a fight about medication earlier with most of the older members getting upset with me. The post was started already aggressively about "x people need their medications period" and that was VERY upsetting to people because not all of them take medication but still feel they have a problem. So I went in there and tried to convince a few people to think outside there head and that angered the original poster enough to tell me I am bad for the forum and the way I speak to people is not good for the people on there. That prompted a moderator to lock the thread.

Anyways I'm going off on a tangent. The point is, stigma is everywhere, even among ourselves with illnesses and to each other.

I suffer a bad case of "depression" when someone speaks to me like that when in reality, they don't even know me. But it hurts none the less. And I go through this far too much.

I'm going to make this about religion (because this is an atheist website, what else am I going to do)

So when it comes to mental illnesses like OCD, a major component is intrusive thoughts. And the person with OCD tries to block the thoughts because they are afraid of them. They sometimes carry thoughts of harming someone or themselves, which for obvious reasons will carry a sense of anxiety with them. Intrusive thoughts like these and others can be seen in other mental illnesses as well and often times it is religious fanatics that will see these symptoms and say they are possessed by the devil. Often with the justification that the person says they are intrusive, and that if God were with them, they would never think about harming anyone.

Schizophrenia is often seen as such a thing. It is very painful to me that a good friend of mine who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia draws her hallucinations, and people have told me that she isn't drawing visions caused by an overactive brain but she is instead drawing demons. Like she is some evil spirit manifested into the reality we know. And that is not what I sense when I am with her. I sense that she is a really caring individual.